IT IS FINALLY OUT! (Get it here. Unless you haven’t read the first two. In which case, start here.)
Okay, now that’s out of the way…
Preptember…?
In October, I will be traveling to the location where my next book takes place, and I’m going to do my best to get 50k words that month, and half of those while I’m abroad. Again, an ambitious goal that I’m unlikely to meet, but even if I fail to reach 50k, I’ll still get lots of work done, touch wood, and visit a lovely part of the world. I do appreciate it when people take me on vacations, I get to go places I wouldn’t be able to afford on my own.
But since October is going to be my NaNoWriMo, September is my Preptober… Preptember? Plantember? Anyway, the month is almost over and I’ve hardly started planning. I’ve been trying to get NoM done. But now it is, so I can happily shift to my next project.
(A hint as to the location for the next book: I have been studying Portuguese in preparation.)
Thoughts on “Autumn vibes”
I love the cosy autumn aesthetic. Truly. I want it to be my life. I could watch videos on loop of women with perfectly manicured hands slowly making cup of tea or coffee and lighting a candle next to a pillow for their morning routine.
I want that.
But I’m not that. I need to hit the ground running first thing and try to get as much done as I can until I run out of momentum. If I have a beautiful slow morning, that’s it for the day. I’m so at peace and relaxed, I just ride that vibe. Today is a great example. I woke up, made tea, and went outside to appreciate the cooler morning and sat and read a book that I’ll be discussing in a book club tomorrow. It was glorious.
But I didn’t do anything for the rest of the day, despite having plenty on the to-do list.
It was a lovely morning. I didn’t achieve the beautiful instagram aesthetic, though. I’m not effortlessly beautiful. Not even with tons of secret effort to look effortlessly beautiful. Nothing can alter that. (That is not a cry for compliments. I know what I look like and I like that my face is a bit villainous.)
I want a peaceful, beautiful clean home and workspace, minimalist and appealing and all hygge-y.
But that’s not who I am. I am a chaos person. Things do not stay tidy (if they were ever tidy to begin with.) So I will have to satisfied with cosy chaos and being effortlessly average.
Imposter Syndrome
I’m glad I can finally share this blog post. I started it last week, but I didn’t want to post anything until I actually published Nature of Magic. It is more expensive than the other two, but it’s also more than twice as long as the first. Ugh. It makes no sense. I feel like a fraud trying to trick people into spending money on something I’ve written, but, isn’t that the goal? To be a semi-self-supporting author? To make a living by writing? And how am I supposed to do that if I do not charge for my work?
I want to get paid for it. I just don’t want to charge for it. It makes it seem like I think I’m worthy, when I don’t think I am. The audacity, to make people pay money to read my work. $5? Who do I think I am? (I spent almost $20 on a book today, but it was Ray effing Bradbury. And I am not even close to Ray effing Bradbury.)
Moving on…
I will try to keep up with the blog while I’m abroad. Posts might be shorter. Or longer, who knows! I already write more when I’m away.
Nope, moving back to autumn vibes. Still not over it.
How are you celebrating the coming of autumn? Or, if you’re in the southern hemisphere, the coming of spring? Both the start of spring and autumn seem like much better places to start anew than January first. So arbitrary. It should definitely be at the change of seasons, and that change should be splendid and awe-inspiring. We should do autumn and spring resolutions.
Yes. Boom. Doing it.
My autumn resolution, or mantra, I suppose, is to always be writing. Fiction, blog, journal, letters, nonsense. I want to entertain myself more with my writing. I want to always be running out of ink, for my fingertips to be forever stained. (That’s an exaggeration, of course, but I want to think of writing in more than just in terms of work, but as solace, comfort, entertainment too.)
If I were to set a measurable goal, it would be to publish this next story by the end of the season.
What about you? Any autumnal (or vernal) resolutions or mantras? What do you want to remind yourself going forward this season?